Volvo TAMD Diesels ??

T

TJM

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I am searching for our new boat and most of the trawler styles that I find either have Ford Lehmans or Volvo TAMD40 diesels.

I have heard lots of good stuff about the Lehmans but not overwhelming amounts of praise on the Vovlo's, corrosion being one of the issues. We are looking at late 1980 boats. So the engine hours could be over 1,000 hrs.
Should I stay with the Lehmans ??
Of course, surveys will be performed to discover the obvious issues.
 
Best bet is to stay with Lehmans. Volvos of that age are difficult to get parts for and those parts are extremely expensive. Alternate would be Perkins. While some of those parts are expensive there are aftermarket alternatives to keep the price down. I had Perkins 6.353NA in my last 2 boats and while they may smoke a bit at startup they ran great. Would suggest you check out boatdieseldotcom for more info.
 
I once owned a Carver that had Volvo TAMD41B diesels. I bought this boat new, and kept it for 8 years. They were the worst engines I have owned. They were always smokey, the parts were way overpriced($30 for an oil filter),and often hard to find. In addition, the Volvo's use a lot of o-rings to connect hoses and hold tubes in place. These o-rings were always leaking and had to be replaced often.

While I have never owned a boat with Ford Lehman's, I have worked on few boats that had them. The parts are easier to find, they are cheaper, and the Fords just seem to keep running.

Personally, I would never own another boat that had Volvo's, but that is just my opinion.
 
It depends very very specifically on your local dealership for Volvo, because the company will not support you at all. You have to know that Volvo has a different kind of support system than just about every other dealer system where the mfg ultimately supports the product. A Volvo dealer is SUPPOSED to provide the function completely. Often they don't. In fact, in Seattle Volvo would not support the dealer and when the dealer decided they would not graciously eat the cost of Volvo's self documented manufacturing flaw, they screwed me for about 18gran. I'd be more comfortable with the 41's than the 40's, though the chances of having piston issues documented with the 40's is low, that's still out there. Somewhere in the dark recesses of my garage I have a box of failing pistons (41 series), one sawed in half by a metallurgist, his report and a small bag of oil cooling nozzles with flow problems. Later came the Volvo notice with serial numbers identifying the impacted engines (but no recall), yet when the pistons failed Volvo would not support Dealer and the Dealer would not support me. Was just lovely finding out they knew all along what was the problem and did nothing but hide it.

Volvo usually makes good equipment, but I will never own another product of theirs again. Ever. It takes more than a good product, you have to have a good support system AND the willingness to stand behind your product instead of a willingness to hid behind your own support policy.
 
Prices are what prices have always been with Volvo. I remember needing a starter solenoid. Volvo wanted over $400 for the part itself. You could buy it for around $350 WITH the starter attached.

So I bought the part from George for $15 instead.
 
My boat has a Volvo TAMD41P diesel engine and I am very pleased with it.

Volvo is a little like Bayliner in the sense that people just love to bash it for some reason. If you choose to believe these folks, fine, look for something else. I would look for a boat that suits you first and then consider the brand of engine second. They are all pretty reliable.
 
I have Volvo D9's in my current boat and I've had no issues with them. The boat is an '06 so I wouldn't expect any now.

Prices on parts are higher than others, no question.

My last boat has Lehman 275 turbo's and while I could get "almost" any part, you can't get them all. I have an exhaust manifold crack and had to get somebody to make a new one and it wasn't cheap. Also, the oil and fuel filters were pretty much on par with the cost of my Volvo filters. A little cheaper but not enough to talk about.

The one good thing about the Lehman is American Diesel. They know those engines cold and they have every part that can be had. When my engine blew, I bought an entire NEW (not rebuild) block from them for ~$9k. I think the volvo cost would be significantly more than that.

I would recommend the Lehman, as long as it is not the 275 Turbo. Nobody thought that engine was a good idea and when I talked to Bob at American Diesel (He ran Lehman, so knows a bit), he said that even at the time they couldn't make those things work reliably. Timing of each engine was hand done because they were all a little different and the exhaust manifold was a complicated disaster. American Diesel has the molds to make those manifolds but they have been unable to find anybody that can actually make them work - they tried and their failure rate was something like 3 fails for 1 good or something.

The one I had made, was flawless though. The shop was recommended by American Diesel but they didn't have any real feedback before mine to know if it was good. I should mention that although it worked without problem, it looked NOTHING like the original. The new one was much more practical design, but I have no way of knowing if it performed exactly the same way.

My engines smoke A LOT!
 
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